| December 22, 2006 | Friday | Ziqa’ad 30, 1427 |
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Encouraging politics
Dazzling December offer
An outstanding officer
National Highway
Korangi waste water project
Talpur Road a shambles
REAP clarifies
Upright people
Liberalise visa policy
Dusty road
Uncle Sam
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
THIS refers to the recently-held Auto Industry Development Programme (AIDP) workshop reported in the press. After going through various such reports I strongly felt that we are living in a country where consumer protection will always remain an unrealised dream. And I have all the right to think that way as none of our so-called high-ups utters a single word in this regard on any platform available.
It seems that in an outbreak of so-called patriotic frenzy, our officials are all set to lure investors at the cost of the consumers. It has become quite a tradition in this country that remedial steps are taken when situation gets out of control. Nowadays, these auto manufacturers are being over-pampered and soon all of us will be hearing statements of taking the bull by the horns (auto cartel in this case).
In short, besides providing incentives to the auto sector, the government should come up with plans to safeguard consumers’ rights from step one as, at the end of the day, it would, after all, be the prosperity and satisfaction of the people that would serve as a barometer to gauge the headway made by the country.
M. ZAMEER AHMED
Karachi
THE government is all set to formulate a policy framework for the automobile industries so as to boost the sector. But in the process the interests of the consumers should also be taken into consideration. This is the most ideal stage to form a regulatory authority that, on the one hand, addresses issues confronting the rapidly growing industry and, on the other hand, safeguards the interests of the consumers. If the consumers’ interests are not given due importance in a bid to boost economy, it will prove to be short-sightedness of our policy-makers.
I strongly urge the president and the premier to take personal interest in incorporating policies to safeguard auto consumers’ interest before it is too late.
AMNA KHAN
Karachi
THIS is in response to the letter (Dec 18) by Mr Asif Noorani defending Imran Khan’s marriage to a Jewish lady and objecting to his joining hands with the MMA at the time of the passing of the Women’s Protection Bill. The writer goes on to advise Imran Khan that he should have concentrated on social work instead of entering the field of politics.
To set the record straight for readers like Asif Noorani, Imran Khan’s ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith was a Christian, not a Jew, and she had already converted to Islam before her marriage to him.
About the Women’s Protection Bill, the PTI would like to make it clear that along with the PML-N, Imran Khan did not want the opposition to fall into the government’s trap of using the bill as a pretext to divide it for its own benefit. Therefore, Mr Khan abstained from voting on the bill. The PTI’s stand on the Hudood ordinance is that it should be scraped as it was forced on this nation by a military dictator to prolong his rule.
As for Mr Khan’s social work, his two main projects are in health and education. The Shaukat Khanam Cancer Hospital is the biggest charitable institution in the history of this country. It spends Rs700 million annually on the free treatment of cancer patients. While the feasibility report for the second cancer hospital at Link Road Karachi is already being prepared, the construction of a huge diagnostic centre with treatment facility is about to start in Defence, Karachi.
Mr Khan is also setting up a technical college of international standard in Namal district, Mianwali, in collaboration with Bradford University, UK, of which he himself is the current chairman. This project is in its completion phase and its soft opening is scheduled to take place in April next. One of the main objectives of the college is to provide employment to the youths of this deprived area of the country.
Mr Noorani should be encouraging people like Imran Khan to enter politics because it is only with such people that the destiny of this country will change.
SARDAR AZHAR TARIQ
Information Secretary,
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf,
Islamabad
I WOULD like to draw the attention of all those who plan to buy a new car. We bought a car from a dealership in Aapara, Islamabad, in the first week of December. We were happy that the company will take care of the registration and will also give a 29” coloured TV to all its customers to add to the charms of December.
The company also offers entry to a lucky draw whereby one may win gold or tickets for a world tour, Mediterranean cruise or Dubai shopping festival.
But unfortunately we discovered soon after delivery that the thrust bearing of the car was faulty. The car was sent to the dealer who replaced the same and returned the car. The same day its gear oil started to leak.
The car was sent back to the dealership where they replaced one of the seals with an old one saying the new one was not available. That too leaked and the car was sent a third time when it got so-called new oil seal. To our amazement, it still leaks.
Clearly the company is generous with customers because the equipment that it sells is substandard.
The company being considerate will get the vehicle registered as it knows their vehicle will not make it to the registration office. Also, they will give a TV as they realise the buyer will not be able to enjoy winter vacations in his or her new car as it is not roadworthy and to compensate for this agony it wants its customers to watch TV and dream of a world trip or a cruise journey or at least a few dollars to spend at Dubai shopping festival, if one is unfortunate in getting a kilo of gold.
KAMRAN JAHANGIR
Islamabad
I WAS shocked to read about the tragic death of Abid Ali, deputy superintendent of Police, Bannu.
I had met him only once but I had heard so much about his professional integrity, dedication and performance beyond the call of duty that I had started to envy and respect him.
He had become a legend while posted as the district police officer, Kohat and Swabi. It is famous in Kohat that during his posting the criminals had migrated from the district and those who stayed behind dared not pursue their activities.
He was young, belonging to the 18th common batch of the CSS, but was given the charge of a division as a DIG while officers many years senior to him would reach that position in years. He belonged to the province of Punjab but served the people of the NWFP during his short period of service in a manner that since morning I have been continuously receiving calls from people who had never had the opportunity to meeting this young legend but are mourning his death.
Whoever is responsible for this heinous crime has deprived not only DSP Ali’s children of his protection, but also the entire population of the NWFP.
His death is a big loss to the nation, in general, and the people of the NWFP, in particular. We the people of the NWFP salute this brave, upright and dedicated officer.
But this brave officer must not be forgotten. I suggest that since he made the police department proud, a private trust should be created for his children and we, the people of the NWFP, will be honoured to contribute to it.
The government of the NWFP is urged to name a prominent building, institution or the police training school at Hangu as a tribute so that the coming generations are aware of the extraordinary services which this courageous and upright officer had rendered for the people of the NWFP and that he sacrificed his life in the process.
ATHAR MINALLAH
Islamabad
THE Gharo-to-Gujjo section on the Karachi-to-Thatta National Highway was raised and provided with water-bound macadam and topped with asphalt concrete only four months back. At completion, the road had no driving quality at all.
At present the whole reach has failed bitterly. It is full of ruts and ditches. Asphalt concrete has been washed away. You cannot drive at more than 20km an hour or else you break your car.
I have seen it during construction. Earth filled to raise it was never compacted to optimum density. Macadam was laid without grading, compaction was done through static rollers just to smooth the stone surface. No camber and side slopes were maintained. I never found any technical man supervising the work. The major part of money has been embezzled by the contractor and the engineer. One cannot measure the corruption involved in it through any yardstick.
Contractually, the contractor is to maintain the works executed by him for at least
12 months. You do not find anybody from the contractor or the owner to fill in the ruts at least.
One part of the episode is that the contractor and the engineer are bold enough to embezzle public funds without any apprehension of getting checked. Another part is that the public does not make any hue and cry to bring it to the knowledge of higher-ups.
RAEES AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
I SUPPORT the views of Mr Muhammad Younus (Dec 18). The Korangi waste water treatment system, comprising anaerobic ponds, was suggested by the then foreign consultants of the KWSB. The ADB was approached, which approved $70 million loan for the project. Credit goes to civil society which got the project stopped.
In 1982, I, then in KDA, conceived and designed the North Karachi waste water treatment plant. The plant was constructed in 1983 and its operation started in 1984. Technically called aerated lagoons waste water treatment system, the plant had the maximum volumetric treatment capacity of five million gallons per day and was based on the extended aeration treatment principle. The plant had a pump-house, wet-well, distribution pit, primary sedimentation tanks, aeration units, secondary sedimentation tanks, sludge drying beds and sludge lagoons. The plant had a bypass system as well.
Aeration was provided by locally-fabricated cage rotors, which were designed by me, and provided excellent aeration. Together with adequate retention times in aeration units and sedimentation in final settling tanks, the plant produced effluent with over 75 per cent BOD (five-day, 20 degrees Celsius biochemical oxygen demand) and suspended solids removals. Knowing fully well then that the KWSB, to whom the plant was handed over, might question the plant’s effluent quality, the samples were intentionally got tested at the KWSB lab at trickling filters waste water plant, SITE.
Since, I was, in a way, obstructing the business of the then foreign consultants, they along with the then engineers of KWSB tried hard to defame the plant. So much was the opposition that they recommended that the plant is worthless and should be sold out, along with the five-acre land and the amount received should be invested in projects suggested by the foreign consultants.
Before I conceived the type of the plant, I had considered the range of plants’ types: activated sludge, trickling filters, oxidation ditches, aerated lagoons, and oxidation ponds. It was after a rigorous assessment of each type, their appropriateness for the local conditions, availability of labour, operation and maintenance of the two trickling filters waste water treatment plants (SITE and Mahmodabad) and the relative ranking of each plant over a wide-ranging parameters that I chose the aerated lagoons system.
When the PCI [planning and development department’s document] of the plant was considered by the P and D department, the then ACS (Mr R. A. Akhund) was so impressed with the system that he asked me to construct more such plants, once I determined that the plant is performing satisfactorily.
Not a single penny was paid in foreign exchange. Hydraulic and biological design was done by me. The KDA paid about Rs28,000 to a local consultant who vetted the structural design of the plant.
It is a bit surprising that the KWSB opted for trickling filters waste water treatment plants, in the 1960s, which are at a high end of the treatment scale. In the 1980s, they opted for ponds system, which are at the lowest end of the treatment scale. But they would not opt for aerated lagoons, which fall at middle of the treatment scale.
The question is: when I can design a mechanically-aided waste water treatment plant, why can’t KWSB engineers design simple ponds system, which has nothing but an inlet and an outlet in a pond, and save the foreign exchange component. Having said that, I would advise the KWSB not to opt for pond (aerobic or anaerobic) system, as they do not work when the raw waste water contains industrial effluents. Mauripur ponds and ponds in Hyderabad are facing such problems and are thus producing poor quality effluent.
F. H. MUGHAL
Karachi
I WANT to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the bad the condition of Talpur Road (an interlinked road between I.I. Chundrigar Road and Mai Kolachi Road via crossing of railway line established from the days of Quaid-i-Azam). Soon after the recent rains, the road has become a death trap. Deep holes, including opened manholes, put the life of a common man in danger.
The flow of traffic is very heavy because loaded container trailers from surrounding godowns and light traffic from central business areas keep the road busy round-the-clock. This road is also being used for spreading traffic in conditions of traffic jam and emergency on I. I. Chundrigar Road and vice versa.
It is also worth noting that it has been recently closed for direct entrance from Mai Kolachi Road towards I.I. Chundrigar Road, being a convenient link road. Now the traffic takes a round of two kilometres from over the bridge and then enters Talpur Road, wasting time and fuel.
Instead of making things easy for citizens, the traffic engineering and management has created hindrance and troubles. The road should be opened and restored to its previous condition and should be immediately repaired.
ROSHAN ALI KHAN
Karachi
APROPOS of news item ‘Kenya withholds rice shipment’ (Dec 13), the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) clarifies as follows:
With Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), our rice exporters have been facing problems for many years. The core of the problem is that KEBS has a single table of rice specification which, originally, was for Kenyan-grown rice known as Pishori.
Pishori is an Indian ‘fine’ rice seed which belonged to the Basmati family. Export of rice from Pakistan to Kenya is mostly of IRRI/6 variety which is defined as ‘basic’ or ‘coarse’ rice and has no match with ‘fine’ rice varieties and its specifications.
The current problem, as reported, is an old one. Like always, this time too, KEBS had objections to the contents of ‘under-milled grains’ and ‘paddy’ contents which, according to KEBS specification, were on a higher side.
There is a wide difference on the above said contents, between specification of PSI (Pakistan Standard Institute) and that of KEBS. PSI standards are accepted world over. Since rice ex new season had landed in Mombasa, probably some lots may have varied much and, therefore, clearance of all consignments was on halt.
REAP acted promptly, so was the commercial section of Pakistan high commission, Nairobi. The high commissioner of Pakistan also acted by meeting the vice-president of Kenya. He also met the minister of trade about the matter. With a fee for re-testing payable by importers, the consignments were cleared.
REAP, with the assistance of the Pakistan HC in Nairobi and the Kenya high commission in Islamabad, is to deliberate with KEBS on this issue of standard and hopefully an amicable solution will be reached.
REAP denies that any rice consignment was held in Kenya on the basis of aflatoxin contents. The ‘anonymous’ exporter quoted in the news item seems to be ignorant of the whole issue. It is sad that a person belonging to rice export trade acted with such irresponsibility. All rice consignments shipped to Kenya were tested and certified by PCSIR laboratories and this process is on.
ABDUL AZIZ MANIYA,
Chairman REAP,
Karachi
A news item recently said: “Former AJK president Sardar Muhammad Anwar Khan has not yet returned an official vehicle.” This reminds me of my father’s retirement as chairman, prime minister’s inspection commission in 1987. Immediately on relinquishing charge, he went out of his office and tried to board a bus to a ride back home.
Some one in the office informed the new chairman regarding the incident and asked my father to utilise the official car for the journey.
My father served the police service of Pakistan and was inspector-general of police when appointed as chairman, prime minister’s inspection commission. Not many people do this.
TAHIR HASSAN
Karachi
THE decision by the governments of India and Pakistan to liberalise their visa policy is good news for people in India aspiring to tour Lahore, the culture capital of Pakistan, and other places of tourist attraction in the country.
Likewise, Pakistani tourists can travel length and breadth of India without any hassles if they can get a visa easily. I request the Indian and Pakistan railways to run a train service between Chennai and Lahore. When there is a train service between Kanyakumari and Jammu, and Lahore to Peshawar - both are long-distance train rides - why can’t there be one from Chennai to Lahore and vice versa?
K.PRADEEP
Chennai
IF anyone would like to witness a dust-storm, he should visit Cantt Mor Road, known as Cantt Mor, near the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College/Pir Bukhari Shrine. This road was proposed to be completed in a short time but now a long time has passed and it is still incomplete.
It has become a source of trouble for people rather than relief. The authorities concerned should look into the matter.
ZULFIQAR AHMED
Karachi
“Dictators are used by Uncle Sam and when the job is accomplished, a C-130 crashes,” writes Sultan Durrani (Dec 11). Mr Durrani lives in the past. The past dictator’s foolishness to confirm to the White House that their job has been accomplished by them is no more applicable.
Z.A. KAZMI
Karachi
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